A Train, A zoo and New Jersey

East Coast Driving Trip 2015 - Day 8

We have been at this for a week now! This morning the son told me it was day 9, I smiled and reminded him we left last Friday... and that today was Friday. Oh... so its day 7 (close enough... it's our 8th travel day)

We left Hershey this morning... Goodbye Chocolate. I would be sad, but we took soo much with us, it's hard to feel like we will miss it ;)

Our first fun of the day was in Strasburg, PA, with a ride on the Strasburg Railroad. This 45 minute excursion is great. Cars are nicely refurbished and the whole trip is narrated.

Our railfan, with 475 after our trip

ready to board

picture time!

please keep your hands, arms, and heads inside the train at all times :) I love this pic of him. 

From here, we were off to Philly and probably the zoo, but we hadn't decided for sure yet. Along the way we stopped for lunch. And then we had a snag... do you hear it? the music beginning to build... something is going to happen....
Well, it wasn't anything horrible... just a window malfunction. Yup, the drivers side door window wouldn't roll up. Not gonna happen. (What music do you use for a goofy mishap?) Anyway, there we sat, with a completely workable car.. not an emergency by any means, but.. we also couldn't leave the vehicle. Hmm, this would need to be fixed, and today!

So we worked our way through the maze of the phone system from the unnamed car rental company (names are being withheld, until the author has decided how she feels about said company) and hubby connected with a real live person! In chatting they decided we should buzz over to the local rental office and just swap out cars. It was only 20 minutes away.. sounds like a fairly easy fix.

Only slightly wind-blown, we arrived at the office, located in a strip mall. The agent just happened to be in the parking lot when we got out of our car and was quite surprised the company sent us to him.... and didn't tell him we were coming (nope, I am still not naming names). He and hubby went inside to talk options and where we might be able to swap vehicles, preferably along our route today. Well, hubby is a charmer ;) and a few minutes later they emerged with a new set of keys. He had a car we could have... grated it was one "size" down from what we had, but all the windows worked and it was much newer... which means bluetooth and more cupholders. (Never underestimate the value of cupholders on a road trip with kids)
We took it! Moved all our bags over and where off.

We decided to hit the zoo after all. And had a nice couple of hours wandering through it. The Philly Zoo has a 360 theme, so several of the animal exhibits even have animals walking over you... amazing. We didn't see any of the big cats using these walk ways, but they are pretty cool.

You can see the overhead walkway the lemurs use.... maybe even the black and white lemurs inside.

Shows the larger cat walkway... also overhead, can you image looking up to see a tiger!?

Okapi, one of my favorites

Great exhibits for pictures

Maned Wolf... these are new to me, our zoo just got a pair. 

Look up... its a bear! 

On our way out of Philly we drove past Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
And I picked up the Philadelphia Starbucks You Are Here Mug... mug count for this trip: 2.

Independence Hall

More to come! 

In an attempt to catch as many states as possible on this trip we are overnighting in New Jersey.
Good night.

Stats:

Miles today: 186

Miles total: 692

States Total: 6 (+New Jersey)
Starbucks Mug Total: 2

One sleepy eagle

East Coast Driving Trip - Day 2

What a full day!
We woke up at 7... wait, nope. I was "lovingly" woken up by my daughter at 3:45 am :(
She was awake.. and no amount of soothing, snuggling or pleading could change that. Somehow jet lag works opposite for her... something to remember in the future.
And by 6 the boy was up and very very (very) excited about our plans for the day.
So, being the delightful wife that I am, I took the kids to breakfast and let the hubby sleep a bit more in peace. Hey, one of us should be sane today ;)

I had the wherewithal to pick up a bottled coffee drink the evening before when we hit the store. So I was caffeinated and the morning rolled along quickly.

Our destination: Romney, West Virginia and a ride on the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad.

The road ahead is clear

West Virginia was a new state for all of us, which meant we hooted and hollared when we saw the "Welcome to..." sign.

Hay

Our train ride awaits. Today's excursion was 4 hours, with some beautiful scenery and some amazing bald eagles.  The train goes along a branch of the Potomac where eagles nest. The views are wonderful. Truth be told, 4 hours was pushing it for me.... 3 would have been much better, but our young rail fan was beside himself with joy, which is a bit contagious.

Bald Eagle in the tree

Corn

Wheat

Enjoying the train

After soaking up the train fun, we hit the road: back to Virginia and on into DC. Our home for the next few days.

Tomorrow we tour the town!

(Forgive the title of today's post... I am working off very little sleep and I found it very amusing - Goodnight)

Stats:

Miles today: 189

Miles total: 245

States Total: 3 (+West Virginia)

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 7

Magic Kingdom

Quote of the day

"Hmm, that was not the most welly constructed sentence"

So I'm tired today.

Getting up was harder today than previous days. I have an eye cream sample that has caffeine in it... I used it this morning.

We breakfasted at Captain Cook's in the Poly. It was the first time we have done this early in the morning and it was empty... Lovely. We were on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom with little trouble.

Magic Kingdom is about to open!!! 

So now we should talk about our park plans. This trip we (and by We I mean my husband) have organized our Disney days using touringplans.com - and wow are they organized. We have never been sooo efficient in our park touring.

We usually are more "Whatcha wanna do now" and "Hey, look over there... Ooo, Shiny". So this well planned approach is new and confusing to me. Where is the time in each ride's shop? And when do I get my assorted, churro, roast nuts, Mickey bar etc. However, after two days of seeing more than we have seen in four days on previous trips, I am seeing the upsides. [Editor's note: Said husband was trying to find a solution to the problem of seeing everything everyone wanted to see in the parks while still leaving the parks by 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon so that we could get to bed early -- since some of our days this trip require getting up before 4:00 AM]

So with the same meticulously crafted plan we tackled the Magic Kingdom. And we ruled. Making a few strategic decisions along the way we left the park earlier than originally planned. And were able to have a more relaxing evening.... And get off achy feet. yay!

Enjoying the Magic Carpet ride

Lines aren't bad at all this morning. 

We had good timing :) 

Proof of the time :) it was 9:30 am when we were finishing Small World.  

Defeating Emperor Zurg takes focus, skill and....

intense concentration.... we had none of those ;) 

Random thoughts...

It's construction season here. Sometimes you really can't get there from here. Sigh.

Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.

I wasn't on board with the whole magic band thing when they announced it back when. But I am converted. They are cool. And a must for young'ns. We observed someone bringing a lost little girl to guest services. English was not her first language. She was probably 6 years old. And with her magic band's help, cast members were calling her dad's cell phone in less than 5 mins.

Sold!

My kids will be wearing magic bands in the parks.

Ok, her dad didn't pick up, but that's not on the magicband.

Trains, the Klondike and Soapy Smith - Day 5

Todays Blog post is brought to you by the Letter S.... for Skagway

I am writing up the post for the day so far, sitting on our balcony overlooking the port/pier in Skagway. A town with the population of just over 800... and there are 3 cruise ships in port today... our ship has 1300 passengers. The cashier in one of the shops in town (which is 3 blocks wide by 5 blocks long) said 3 ships is really manageable, 4 plus and it gets crazy. Okay!
The weather is amazing and our early morning excursion on the White Pass Yukon Railroad was amazing as well. All the times we have seen the DVD of this train don't do the ride itself justice. We booked a ride that included "Disney exclusive youth activities". Which means on the return trip down the mountain, all the young'ns went into another passenger car with 4 dedicated staff/cast/angels, to keep them happy and all the adults (and our train loving boy) stayed in the main cabin for quiet and and sparkling cider (or champagne if you were so inclined). The trip which departed from the dock, then returned to the depot in town... a minute walk from the dock. But we took advantage and did our shopping.

This is the only port we will have time and opportunity to shop in, so took a little while to acquire the needed memorabilia :)
Back on board, we got lunch and now I sit, enjoying the weather and the view. At 3 the young man and I will go see the Disney Nature movie Bears, while hubby relaxes a bit and the little lady plays in the kids clubs.
 ---
I am back from the movie, and what's that saying about things not going as planned? Oh well. The young man really struggled with the movie and he connected with Hubby who decided not to relax. So they did some laundry... I got the better end of that deal.
We all met back up for dinner in Parrot Cay.
After dinner, we skipped the evening show, which was actually a movie (Maleficent). The little lady hit the clubs and the rest of the family watched our departure from Skagway and enjoyed the ship.
We aimed to get to sleep early... tee hee, that only worked for 1 of the 4 of us.

Tomorrow Juneau!

The Color Run - Take Two!! Spokane!

We are at it again! Painting the town, you might say....
We headed over to Spokane this last weekend so Hubby and our little lady could run and be colorful!

She wished she had joined him earlier this year in the Seattle Color Run, and we saw that Spokane was also having a run on Sunday.... so we signed them up!

Dinner the first night was at Tomato Street, which was lively and fun with yummy food.

Kids adding to the HUGE chalkboard "Imagination Zone"

Roasted Garlic and Cambazola appetizer - Oh my, so very good!

We went to bed early... or tried to, the run was in the morning!

soo excited about the run, wearing headband to bed :)

ready for bed

Our hotel is along the walking path to Riverfront Park, which makes getting around downtown really easy.
So after a quick breakfast at the hotel, we walked over to the start line.

Ready set GO!!!

While they were out running around the town, the train loving boy and I hit the local Starbucks.
Which as luck would have it, was right by the 4K mark, otherwise known as the PINK ZONE!
So we grabbed our drinks.... watched through the window as the first runners came by.
Then we headed outside and waited for them to come by.

Oh, the pink!

Here they come!

stopped for a quick photo op.... colorful!

We let them run on to the finish line and walked back to meet them.  And we caught a great picture of the street where the run started....

A little color for brother... thank you Little Lady

So, let's backtrack a bit... while the kiddo and I were at Starbucks, our train loving boy spotted a poster on the bulletin board - the Amtrak Exhibit Train was in Spokane for the weekend!!! 

So.... we knew what we were going to do this afternoon. 

After a shower for those wearing a little extra color... we were off to see the Amtrak Exhibit Train. 

 After enjoying the Exhibit Train, we had lunch and walked back to the hotel... with a quick stop at the wagon slide.

Our afternoon also included a gondola ride over the falls and a mini train tour through the park.

We had a great time in Spokane and the kids can't wait to go back.
One last picture -

Huh? I thought we were in Spokane.... not San Diego. Funny :)